Rest Sad Eyes
by Goten0040
Summary: A bittersweet melody brings two very different people together over the keys of a piano, and haunts them for three encounters. Perhaps they’re not so different after all. DracoxLuna Three-Shot
1. Verse One

**Rest Sad Eyes**

_(Author's Note: For the Romance Fanfiction Contest at Third Floor Corridor. I had to write a unique couple, and this is one I always wanted to try. It actually turned out quite sweet. The song used is from _Sense and Sensibility _and is composed by Patrick Doyle.)_

_(Summary: A bittersweet melody brings two very different people together over the keys of a piano. Perhaps they're not so different after all. DracoxLuna)_

His feet halted almost immediately when he heard it.

A soft melody was wafting through the air of the Hogwarts corridor, carried with an angelic, unique, voice. He felt as if he were breathing slower, approaching with a grace that he'd been born with. Slowly, he slipped around the door and into the room, drenched in shadow, hiding from her in the moonlight.

Surprise caught his lungs when he saw whom it was.

Before him, sitting at an old-looking piano, was a pale girl with long, waving blonde hair and large blue eyes. Her gawky wrists carried long fingers across ebony and ivory keys, filling the room with notes and chords, accompanied by a light, lovely voice.

_Sleep is a reconciling,_

_A rest that peace begets…_

_Doth not the sun rise smiling,_

_When fair at evening says,_

_"Rest you then,"_

_"Rest sad eyes,"_

_"Let not in weeping,"_

_"While she lie sleeping,"_

_"Softly, softly,"_

_"Now softly,"_

_"Softly lie sleeping…."_

The piano twinkled with the voice that could not be described with words. The piano trailed away and she sat back and gazed at the keys. Draco could not believe what he had just seen. _Loony Lovegood?_ He had never imagined the slightly awkward and strange girl to have a talent such as that… to appear so… _normal_…

Her large sapphire eyes moved from the silent piano to the doorway. Draco felt a chill run down his back. He'd been seen. She didn't look angry. She merely cocked her head to the side like an animal might, confused. Then, a smile spread across her face, and she stood.

"Hello," she said.

"Erm… hello," Draco said, arching his eyebrows, confused.

Her cloak practically swallowed her up. The girl was so damn skinny. Draco couldn't figure out how she could eat every day and remain the weight she was. Her thin, bird-like legs carried her across the room to him.

"I'm sorry. Do you want to use the music room? I do warn you, though. There are signs of Nargles in here. You might want to be careful."

Draco looked around at the dark room. "Doesn't the chorus usually use this room."

"Well, yes," Luna explained, nodding. "They all left when I came in here. I think the Nargles scared them, but I'm not afraid."

"Y-yeah," Draco said, actually feeling a little bit sorry for her, much to his digress. "Where's your little Gryffindor friends?"

She shrugged her bony shoulders, and her large, radish shaped earrings touched them. "I don't know. I came here to play."

"Well," Draco stuck his nose in the air for a moment, attempting to be the haughty person he was around school, but her innocent, child-like look, quickly had his mask breaking away. "You're… very talented."

Her eyes twinkled. "Why, thank you. So are you!"

"In what?"

"I don't know," Luna said, retreating back to the piano, "But there certainly must be something you're good at."

Draco glowered at her for a moment. He was good at a lot of things, and she couldn't find one. "Yes, there are many."

"Would you like to sit with me?" she asked suddenly.

Draco blinked, taken aback. "I beg your pardon?"

"Do you like my music? I like it." She ran her fingers over the keys a few times, making a few chords and the like. "Pianos scare away a lot of creatures, but I think it's very beautiful sounding. Father bought one to scare them away, and I learned to play it."

Draco looked over his shoulder. It was awfully late. No one would be coming to find him for quite some time. _This is absolutely ridiculous. She's _Potter's_ friend, and certainly insane._ And yet he was drawn to her somewhat. She was a gawky sort of thing - she definitely lacked the beauty of her little friend, the Weasley girl (even Draco himself had admitted she was a very pretty girl, for a Muggle-lover of course), but she was interesting, and something within him wanted to know more.

He sat down next to her on the bench. She played a few notes, gazing at them with wide, concentrating oculars. Draco watched for a moment, then placed his slender fingers on the keys. She looked at him for a moment as he added to the melody, long complex movements along the ivories. It had been a long time since he had played. His mother had taught him at a very young age. At the time he had hated it, and quickly quit playing when good enough to satisfy her and her friends at parties, and yet, he realized, he was actually enjoying showing off.

Of course, he _was_ a Malfoy. That was what Malfoys did.

A rich, magical tune filled the air. He looked away from the keys to give her a signature smirk of superiority, but it froze halfway across his face. She was smiling from ear to ear, completely overjoyed. Draco looked back to the keys.

"What are you so happy about?" he grumbled.

"No one's ever played with me before," she said softly, not changing tone.

"No one?" He was actually surprised.

"None of my friends know I can play," she said quite frankly. "And not very many people like me anyway."

Draco looked at her again. She wasn't looking so overjoyed anymore. She concentrated on the piano, sweeping her hands over his fingers to reach higher notes.

"But it's okay," she said.

Draco glanced down at his own hands, moving fluidly along with hers. "Well…" He sighed. "Not many people like me either."

"It's because you're different," Luna said, nodding.

"No, it's because I'm an ass," Draco replied flatly. "I _am_ aware of it."

"Oh, no. You're just different," Luna spoke with an air of childlike intelligence. "You get mad sometimes, but you look sad to me, most of the time."

"_What?!_" Draco glared at her, his hands halting on the keys. "I am _not_ sad!"

Luna continued to play, moving into the previous melody he had heard upon his arrival. "Well, I could be wrong."

She hadn't argued at all. Draco was in so much shock, his hands dropped from the keys into his lap.

"Well…" he said.

She was humming the song to herself as she played.

"Maybe a little."

She smiled. "I can see it in your eyes."

"What?"

"I think," she said, never faltering, "That eyes tell everything about a person."

"Not everything."

"You say that because you've never tried to read them before," she replied. "I can see in _your_ eyes that you have a tough decision to make, one you don't want to make. You're forced into a lot of things that you don't want to do. Maybe that's why you're so angry all the time. Maybe that's why you're so sad too…"

Draco gazed at her, bathed in silver moonlight. She spoke the words so easily. She didn't care. Draco stood suddenly, feeling frustrated.

"_Shut up!_"

"Okay," she said, then went back to her song.

This girl was so confusing…

He sat back down.

"Who cares?" He said. "I don't need to be liked. I can be angry when I want, if nobody likes me."

"I like you."

"What?" He turned his head to her.

"I like you," she repeated, long black eyelashes fluttering ever-so-slightly.

"…_Why?_…"

_Wow, how sad is that,_ Draco thought bitterly, _I'm confused as to why anyone would like me…_

"I just do," she said. "Lots of people don't like me for any reason. I think I can like someone for no reason too."

"You're such a child," Draco muttered, embarrassed and bothered.

"I like children," Luna stated.

"Do you _ever_ speak seriously?!" Draco yelled suddenly. "Everything I say, you turn it into some… some… weird statement."

Luna smiled again, a bit more softly, and suddenly, he saw that her eyes were actually quite sad. He was reading her…

"Well, it's just who I am. I'm… _Loony_ Lovegood," she quickly averted her eyes to the piano.

Draco glanced down at his lap. "Er… Luna--"

"It's okay though."

"No, it's not okay! Why don't you get mad! Yell at them! Why do you let them treat you like that?!"

"It's just who they are," she said. "I can't make them like me. I can't change to be what they want. So why would I do something like that?"

"But… doesn't it hurt?"

"Hurt? Oh, no…"

There was a moment of silence. She continued:

"Well, perhaps sometimes it does. Being in Ravenclaw and all, it's hard to make friends, being the way I am. Everyone wonders why I'm in there. They think I'm positively mad, but I'm really not. I just think differently. Personally, I think that it's not how your thoughts work, but what they are, right?"

"…R-right."

She stopped playing, folding her hands in her lap. "Well, Draco. I hope you can make your decision soon."

Draco looked away. "Y-yeah."

She stood up and offered him a hand. He gazed at the long, gangly fingers, almost in awe that they could play the melodies he had heard moments ago. He took her hand and she helped him up. She didn't let go right away, looking into his eyes. He felt his heart beat a little faster, as if she were looking through his soul, and she knew what he would do.

"Thank you for playing with me," she said, breaking the silence.

Draco paused, waiting for more, for an accusation, a threat, anything. Nothing came.

He squeezed her hand slightly, and a soft smile spread across his lips almost uncontrollably. "You're welcome."

Luna let go first and headed toward the door. "You should smile more often, Draco. It looks very nice on you."

With that, she left the room, the echoes of her singing moving throughout the corridor outside.

_"Softly, softly,"_

_"Now, softly," _

_"Softly lie sleeping…"_


	2. Verse Two

.Verse Two.

It had been weeks since that encounter. Months even. At the moment, Draco could hardly remember. He had far more pressing things on his mind. He'd notice his behavior becoming more erratic. He was angrier more often, and far more fidgety than he had been before, and he was longing just to sit at that piano and relax as he had done so before. But it was too late for that. He didn't have time. He just didn't have time. It was probably the worst he'd ever felt. His grades had slipped substantially, nothing was going to plan, and he was frightened, so frightened for his family's lives that he'd begun to have small breakdowns…

And big breakdowns too.

He was in the middle of one, and he knew it was not the first nor the last. He couldn't even get himself up to go to class that morning. He'd been plagued with a nervous nausea and shaking hands, and the shaking had only gotten worse throughout the day. He had pulled himself into a small corner of a bathroom, hidden by the shadow of a sink, and sat, curled up, shaking and trying to stop the relentless trail of tears rolling down his cheeks.

_I can't do this,_ he thought. _I can't do this. I'll never be able to pull this off. My family's going to die and it'll be all my fault. I can't do this. I can't do this…_

His throat tightened and he buried his face in his knees, sniffling and choking. His heart was slamming against his ribs and he could feel it in the pulse on his neck. He was having difficulty breathing. The panic was setting in. He knew from experience.

_No, Draco. You have to calm down,_ he told himself desperately. _Calm down!_

He clutched his knees, took a deep breath, and then began to whisper to himself a small, strange little melody that reminded him of better times…

_Sleep is a reconciling,_

_A rest that peace begets…_

_Doth not the sun rise smiling,_

_When fair at evening says---_

He began to cry. Not in panic, but in sheer loss and frustration. He couldn't sing the next part. He knew it was a lie. Sad eyes would never rest. Never. He couldn't stand being there anymore. He actually thought of offing himself just to be done with it - but then - his family… What would happen to his family.

_Wh-why did they trust me with this? I… I can't do it. I'm just a kid!_

Suddenly, the echo of footsteps filled the room and he jolted, jerking his head up to see who it was. His hand shakily clasped around his wand, and he watched the shadow of whomever it was move into the doorway.

"Hm… that's strange. Myrtle said she was moving into this bathroom," came the murmurings of a familiar voice.

His wand clattered to the floor and rolled away from him. He had no idea why he had let go of it. Perhaps he hoped she'd turn him in, so he would just die and get it over with. It wouldn't be his fault. His family wouldn't blame him… would they?

He watched as slender, pale fingers clasped the wand and picked it up off the floor. Her nails were painted five different colors of blue. _Speak of the Devil…_

"Now where did this…" she paused. "Hello?"

Her soft voice echoed into silence. Draco was trying not to breathe. She stood for a moment, then leaned back down to place the wand back on the floor.

That was when he caught her eyes. She'd seen him with those big blue eyes…

"Draco Malfoy?" she asked softly.

"Go away," he whispered.

She didn't move.

"**GO AWAY!**" He yelled, clutching the back of his head, almost forcing it back to his knees.

Silence. _Did… did she leave?_

He heard the shifting of robes and looked to see Luna sitting right next to him. "Did… didn't you hear me?! I told you to leave!"

"Well, I'm sorry, Draco, but I just can't leave my friend here."

"F-friend---"

"This is your wand, right?" She handed it to him.

The stunned boy took it without any protest. "Y-yes."

"You seem awfully upset. Is it that decision you have to make?" Her innocence was frustrating and yet somewhat relieving. It scared him how right she was.

"Y-yes. It is."

"Well, I'm sure you'll make the right one," she said.

"There _is_ no right one," Draco replied quite bitterly.

"Oh, I see. It's one of _those_ decisions. Well, you'll just have to do what's best for you."

She looked at him with a soft, childlike smile. Draco longed so deeply to smile like her that it hurt.

"Your hair is falling in your face," she stated, brushing away a few stray strands only to watch them flop back down onto his forehead.

He shook his head, almost laughing to himself. "I can't believe you."

"Well, it is," Luna said.

"Not that you dunce," he replied, running his hand through his hair. "You make this obvious assumptions. How can you say these little things when something serious is going on?"

"Well," Luna said softly, "I don't know. I guess I think the little, happy things make the big, serious things easier to deal with."

Draco gazed at her with glassy eyes. "What about my hair falling in my face is happy?"

She smiled and her eyes twinkled with an intelligence that he hadn't noticed before. "It's cute," she said, as if it were obvious.

Draco blinked, then laughed, bitter with sarcasm. "Yeah. Thanks. I'm glad my looking completely worse for wear is doing it for you."

"Are you going to be alright?"

The question stood on stale air. Draco turned away from her. He couldn't answer that question. He didn't know. Or he didn't want to know.

"I don't know."

Tears threatened his eyes again and he was surprised by them. Luna reached up and brushed one off of his cheek. He looked to her again, almost searching her for answers.

"Come here," she said, looking almost motherly.

Draco wasn't sure why he did what he did. Perhaps it was his fear. Perhaps it was his desperate need for comfort. Perhaps he was missing his mother….

He laid his head on her shoulder.

She wrapped a slender arm behind his back and one around his neck, as if rocking him, then slowly, softly, began to sing that sweet little melody, made sweeter by the silence.

_Sleep is a reconciling,_

_A rest that peace begets…_

_Doth not the sun rise smiling,_

_When fair at evening says,_

_"Rest you then,"_

_"Rest sad eyes,"_

_"Let not in weeping,"_

_"While she lie sleeping,"_

_"Softly, softly,"_

_"Now softly,"_

_"Softly lie sleeping…."_

Draco closed his eyes, just listening, feeling it flow through his veins. He couldn't tell his eyes to rest, but she could. He wondered why. Her voice echoed around him, lulling him, comforting him, gathering him in a motherly embraced. Oh, how he had longed for this…

"Sing it again," he commanded in a quiet voice.

She obliged, absently stroking his arm. He felt himself slipping away from the all-too-real world and into a dream-like state, calm, and… dare he say it, happy….

When he awoke, she was gone. She had wrapped her cloak around him before she had left, and her voice almost seemed to continue through the corners of his mind, her smile almost haunting him. He stood on shaky legs, looking down at the cloak with somewhat of an awe. Something about this girl… something…

He had a feeling he wasn't going to see her very much from then on. He was right. He didn't see her for the rest of the year, except perhaps a glance in the crowds. And in that fight… oh, Merlin, that fight….

Still, as he ran from Hogwarts, knowing that his decision had finally been made, he couldn't help but hear her voice in his head, never leaving, a constant reminder… that he wasn't all bad. That one person, one estranged girl actually cared about him.

It wasn't a lot.

…But it was enough…

(Author's Note: I continue this by request, and it will be a three shot. One more chapter to go. Thanks for your support!)


	3. Final Verse

.Final Verse.

He had stepped into the dungeons with a sense of foreboding. He wasn't sure what he was going to see. His father had sent him there to make sure Wormtail was still doing his job. Draco was honestly not sure why the hell _he_ had to do it. He didn't even know whom Wormtail was watching.

And when he found out, he wished he hadn't gone down there at all.

Luna sat alone in the cell, scratched and cut and dirty. Draco felt a chill raise on his spine as he swallowed rage that boiled in his stomach. He cast an apathetic glance to Wormtail.

"Take a break, cretin."

Wormtail scuttled away without a peep. Luna didn't look up, her eyes cast to her lap. Draco worried she was unconscious…

Or worse…

He paused, waiting for something… anything.

"L-luna…"

She raised her head slowly, and Draco felt himself take a step back. He was in complete shock. Her deep, blue eyes had lost so much spirit, finally showing the broken little girl behind the mask of innocent kindness. Her eyes… were so sad…

Draco felt his chest tighten at the sight of her. The soft, glowing, childlike girl had died into adulthood…

She stood up slowly, wincing at a painful wound on her leg, then looked to him again. Draco felt his lip quiver ever-so-slightly. He never wanted to see her like that. Ever….

He rushed to her and enveloped her in his arms. She let off a small gasp of surprise.

"Oh, why did it have to be _you_?" He cried aloud, squeezing her to his chest.

"Oh, it's alright," she said softly, but her voice was lacking. "As long as my father's okay… but I don't know…"

Draco pulled back, holding her at arm's length. "Where is he?"

"I don't know."

"Not at all?"

She shook her head. "They took me away to get information. I don't have any. I don't know where Harry and Hermione and Ron went…"

Draco felt a pang of guilt with each name mentioned. "The Dark Lord has to get his hands on them…"

Luna shook her head. "No. Harry's going to win."

Draco gazed at her - she was so sure… He longed to be that sure of something.

"Maybe you're right."

"I am," Luna said with sincerity. "…Are you okay?"

"What?! You're asking me? You're the one that's hurt," Draco quickly protested.

"Flesh wounds are nothing," Luna said quietly, her head hanging slightly. "It's the inside ones that hurt."

There was a moment of silence between them. Draco knew very well that her experience with the _inside wounds_ was vast. He reached up and brushed a stray hair off of her face, and found his hand cupping her cheek in his palm. She cast her eyes down again.

"…What is it?"

"Nothing."

"I believe it was you who taught me that you can speak untruthful words, but your eyes will never lie," Draco said softly, pulling her chin up to look at him. His heart was pounding and he didn't know why.

She pulled away and took a step back, nodding you head.

"You're right…"

"What, then?"

"I… I can't believe what you're doing…"

Draco felt his eyes burn. "I… I didn't have a choice." His voice was dark and quiet.

Luna's eyes flashed for a moment, their innocence vanishing, and she promptly slapped him across the face. Draco heard it before he felt it. The sting of his pride was worst than the one on his cheek. Subconsciously, he grabbed her wrists and slammed her against the wall.

"You!" He yelled, though he couldn't say anything else.

"You always have a choice!"

"No! I don't!" he wailed, his eyes on fire. He quickly let go and turned away from her, afraid any sign of vulnerability would remind her of the sorry soul she had met in the bathroom. "I don't. My family… they're on the _line_ here, Luna. I… can't let them down. _You_ understand, don't you? You have to! You're worried about your father, too!"

There was a moment of silence. Draco didn't expect her speak again.

Then, a soft, muffled sound caught his ear. He was so surprised by it, he couldn't register what it was by hearing alone. He turned around…

Luna was sobbing, tears trickling down her pale cheeks, lit in the moonlight in an almost ironic beauty. The girl always kept him guessing… Draco cursed himself for having such an attitude. He couldn't help it. He was stressed. He wasn't so sure about anything anymore, he was scared, and everyone around him was on edge as well.

"Luna… I'm… I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "It's not… it's not you…. Well… maybe a little…"

"What is it, Luna?"

She wiped tears off of her cheek. "Oh… it's just…."

She closed the distance between them again and touched his cheek with such sincerity that his heart leapt into his throat.

"Malfoy… you could be… _so great_…"

He felt two tears slip from the corners of his eyes and slide lazily down his face, touching his lips. He stared at her with silver eyes that had deadened so much since their first meeting. He grasped her hand in his to keep it to his cheek. There was something comforting about it.

"I could get you out of here," he said. "You could escape-"

"No, Draco. I won't. You've got to do what you need to do. Harry will come and save me."

"Damn it!" Draco pulled away, suddenly infuriated. He couldn't keep himself calm. "Potter isn't the only hero around here!"

"Let him do this one," Luna said calmly, her voice serious. "Draco, I know… that you have to keep up this act. I'm sorry for overreacting. Just… remember… that when the time comes… I know you'll make the right choice."

"What's the right choice?" Draco whispered, all the hurt and confusion he'd been feeling surfacing and cracking the mask he'd built up for so long.

Luna shook her head. "You have to decide that, Draco."

"I don't want to!" He yelled. "Tell me what to do!"

"You can't depend on me," she said softly. "Draco, you have to do what you feel is necessary to protect the people you love. You have to do what you feel is right. You can't depend on me or your mother or your father or anybody to make your decisions now…. It's time to grow up."

Draco was shaking. He felt his knees knocking together and the tremors making his chest tighten. He knew she was right. But what if _he_ was wrong? What would he do? Could he handle that decision? Thoughts raced through his mind, then died away when he looked at her milky face in the moonlight.

"What I feel is right?" he croaked.

She nodded. "I feel that I need to stay here. Here, I will be able to plan to fight for my cause, what _I_ feel is right. Here, I can listen for information about my father. Here… I got to see you again."

Luna wrapped her arms around his torso.

"It's so hard…" Draco murmured into her yellow hair.

"Nothing… worth fighting for… is easy."

Draco spoke without thinking. "I'd fight for you."

She looked up at him. "What?"

"You…" he said softly. "You understand me."

"You're not that hard to understand, Draco," Luna said, pulling back to look him in the face. "… It's all… in your eyes."

He gazed at her for a moment, feeling something swell inside of him - something he'd never felt before. It was warm and cold and scary and amazing at the same time, and in the rush of emotion, grasped her shoulders, pulled her to him, and kissed her.

She jolted in surprise, her long fingers sprawled against his chest, eyes wide and blue. Draco pulled away for a moment, mere centimeters, fearful of another slap, but she closed the distance again with one small, short, chaste peck. She was afraid too. He could sense it in her reaction. But they both knew what had happened. She pulled away from him and her eyes were glassy again.

"I think Wormtail will be back soon…" she said. "You should go…"

"Yes," Draco said.

They both knew what had happened, yes. And at that moment, they both knew it was over too. It couldn't happen. They were two people, worlds apart, brought together by one little song that led to understanding. He never wanted to admit it to himself, however.

"Will I… see you again?"

Luna sighed. "After this war…? I don't know, Draco… I don't know."

"…Well… goodbye then…" he whispered, feeling more tears welling in his eyes.

"…Goodbye…"

He began his ascent on the steps, wiping away stray tears and hoping no one would see him in such a state when he reentered the top floors of the castle.

_Sleep is a reconciling,_

_A rest that peace begets…_

He paused, listening to the twinkling voice, more strained than he remembered, echoing around him like the memory he'd never forget.

_Doth not the sun rise smiling,_

_When fair at evening says,_

_"Rest you then,"_

_"Rest sad eyes,"_

_"Let not in weeping,"_

_"While she lie sleeping,"_

He wasn't sure if she was singing for him or for herself.

_"Softly, softly,"_

_"Now softly,"_

_"Softly lie sleeping…."_

He closed the door, taking in a deep, staggering breath, and, with great effort, made his first adult decision.

He walked away.

Later that night, he would make his second adult decision - he would let Harry Potter take his wand, which would later help him to destroy the Dark Lord that had controlled his family for so long.

He never spoke to her after that. Neither of them made the effort. They only saw each other a few times, made eyes once or twice in the corridors when school started back. Every once in awhile, he would step into the music room - but she was never there. He wondered if she still sang sometimes, and even caught himself humming the tune to that little song, and on those nights in the music room, he waited for her, playing the piano, and singing that song.

_"Softly, softly,"_

_"Now softly,"_

_"Softly lie sleeping…."_

And he had a feeling that she might actually have heard it.

.End.

(Author's Note: Okay, that's the end, officially. The beginning of this chapter was a bit strange - I wasn't sure if I really liked it and even contemplated rewriting it - but by the end of it, I like it. I hated to end it on this sad, dare I say it, note, but I wanted to try and keep it somewhat canon. I hope you guys liked it, and wish me luck in the contest! Thanks so much for reading. I appreciate all your feedback.)


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